Talk:Timeline

It seems that various timelines printed in official sources don't seem to agree with each other and get retconned every now and then...

For example, the timeline in Lands of Conflict is different than timeline in first edition of the Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game, Second edition has a different timeline than in Lands of Conflict, and Lands of Mystery makes refrences to the timeline as it is in the second edition sourcebook.

The books themselves describe events in a clear order, often stating that a book takes place after a previous book. The events described in every sourcebook predate the start of the World of Warcraft RPG. The newest book, Lands of Mystery clearly takes place before World of Warcraft, as Brann Bronzebeard has not yet gone missing, as per introduction lore in World of Warcraft manual.

Here are some examples.

The first edition sourcebook clearly states that it is set approximately one year(26 years after WC1) after the events of Reign of Chaos, which it states occured 25 years after WC1. However it briefly touches on what will happen later that year(events of frozen throne). Each sourcebook released after it are approximately one year after the events of Frozen Throne.

Lands of Conflict "adjusted"* the timeline around a bit moving the events of Warcraft 3 backwards to 20 years after Warcraft 1, with many of the events set after it adjusted between 20-25 years after warcraft 1. The book taking place at a newly adjusted "25 years after WC1". This version of the timeline seems to be the one used in this article. It seems to be the least reliable version.

The second edition of World of Warcraft RPG uses the same timeline from Warcraft RPG first edition, with Warcraft 3 being set 25 years after WC1. However it sets the new book at 30 years after WC1(just after the events of Lands of Conflict), approximately 2 years after Frozen Throne. Refrences in Lands of Mystery state that it takes place 2 years after Frozen Throne as well, clearly in refrence to the second edition book, placing it in the same year as the second edition. Since Brann Bronzebeard is not yet missing it occurs before the start of World of Warcraft. Which would be approximately 32 years after WC1 going by that version of the timeline.

Metzen is said to be in charge of the timelines printed in various official sources, but I'm beginning to think he doesn't really have a clear idea, how much time passes between each event. But considering that Lands of Conflict's version seems to be least reliable timeline compared to other sources, I think it should be ignored, and this article adjusted to reflect the most current printed timeline. At least until blizzard changes its mind again..

The only problem I have with it is that there isn't any straightforward locked down timeline and Blizzard keeps on releasing a new timeline, with changes practically every time they release a new book or game, :p...

Its the main reason I've been hesistant to give specific dates when I list information from the RPG. This article has some accuracy issues as well, sometimes refrencing a hodge podge of dates from random timelines, including the first one established in Warcraft I & 2, and later ones.Baggins 00:27, 28 December 2006 (EST)

Well until i see reason otherwise, i'm sticking with what makes sense in terms of timelines, which i expressed in War of the Ancients. Makes it straightfoward and locked down enough for me. Was merely considering appending (New) and (Old) to dates. --Zeal(talk - contr - web) 00:52, 28 December 2006 (EST)

So you are saying you just want to say happens before event, or after event, but don't plan to be super "specific" with numbering the dates?Baggins 00:54, 28 December 2006 (EST)

Well there you see we have a problem, which timeline from Blizzard do we choose? One time line states Warcraft 3 ends in year 21 WoWOSG 39, another states it ended in year 20 LoC 35, and some of the most recent timelines says it ended 25 years or in some 26 after APG 161WoWRPG 11WRPG 33. Or you can go back to the warcraft 3 manual itself, it gives yet another date, and I'm sure I'm not refrencing every possible timeline option out there...

You only used one event for an example, and I just refrenced 3 seperate timelines used by Blizzard, and I can assure you that for some individual events, they have been moved up or down the timeline into different years each timeline, so they don't all match up.Baggins 01:12, 28 December 2006 (EST)

So many edit conflicts :p Didn't realize retcons were a topic up for debate for this issue :p Newest official source is always the most accurate source. In most cases, WoW, or it's website, is that source. I can't see any reason to ever reference retconed timelines unless it's a talk about the differences or the timeline specific to that source, and in that case, it's easy enough to append the source to the differing dates. --Zeal(talk - contr - web) 01:23, 28 December 2006 (EST)

Nope the official site's timeline is not the newest timeline source, it hasn't been updated or altered in ages. Infact most of it is just taken from the Warcraft 3 manual, or WoW manual, which are also out of date. To be honest Blizzard's most recent released timeline would have to be the one in Alliance Player's Guide. I think to be fair we would have to post every single possible timeline Blizzard ever released, and let people decide for themselves from that. But that is not needed on individual pages.

Ingame WoW does not have a specific timeline either, quests happen out of order, and some events have not yet occured in the literature side of events either.

This is one reason why bookkeepers as a whole have probably avoided using specific dates... Too much of a chance of Blizzard changing things yet again.Baggins 01:26, 28 December 2006 (EST)

With you on the WoW out of order events, would never record them in a timeline until after WoW is over or Blizzard do one themselves tbh. But i still say the only timeline that needs representation across all pages is the most up-to-date version. Would love to see the timelime updated for APG, and rise of the horde (which is undoubtidly the most recent) too. --Zeal(talk - contr - web) 01:41, 28 December 2006 (EST)

Well if RotH is anything like the Horde Player's Guide orc culture doesn't go for writing down specific dates on events. They just record important events, but don't care when it happened exactly. So they never write down specific timelines, that's an Alliance thing. The Horde tends to just round when they think the event occured, like "About twenty years ago", or "a few years ago", or, "many moons ago", etc.

Well i was more refering to new events and even vague dates we have to add to the timeline for before the war. Btw i've implemented this is my mock npc article, Broxigar, very simplistic though. --Zeal(talk - contr - web) 01:53, 28 December 2006 (EST)

I've started listing the highlights of Blizzard's 2006 Alliance Player's guide timeline. You can find it at Timeline (APG). Timeline is now a disambiguation for the various flavors of timelines that have been printed over the years.Baggins 02:00, 4 January 2007 (EST)

Hmm, the timeline (wow.com) is the closest to one that has unofficial entries in it. As it has outgrown the original wow.com version. However the main reason for turning timeline into a disambig and seperating the timelines into different pages was due to the fact that there are slight variences in each one. Certain events listed as having happened at different times during each timeline. This way each one gets a fair account of what each timeline says, a single page doesn't get too big, and its easier to read.Baggins 23:39, 4 January 2007 (EST)